10,000

Maybe you can help me. I'm in search of the rules to a game that I used to
play with my father about 10 years ago. It's a dice game called 10,000 (or
Ten Thousand). Players rolled 5 or 6 dice and received points according to
your roll and played until someone reached 10,000 points. I've had no
success checking dice game books, etc.

Dear Editor, I just happened to browse through your site and was amazed
to see the first letter of your "STUMP THE NET"! I am the creator of
10,000, a dice game and have two copyrights to said intellectual
property. The game is officially called "SNAP", a diversion! It
incorporates six beautiful 'electric' sky blue dice, the official rules
in English and Spanish (soon to be in many other languages) and a
sturdy plastic box that is the size of a PACK OF MARLBORO'S. If you
would like more info, contact me at
snap@bellsouth.net. Thank you, I am
Charles J. Weckwerth/Pres./Diversions Unlimited

But, as usual, the near encyclopedic brain of Michael Keller contains
the real skinny on this popular dice game. - ken

The French dice game called Dix Mille (Ten Thousand), is
so named because 10,000 points is the goal of play (in the English-
speaking world this has usually become Five Thousand, or occasionally
Zilch or other names). At least in English, this is a folk game,
spreading mostly by word of mouth, with many slight variations.
In looking in over a dozen sources, I could find only a few printed
accounts : Gil Jacobs' "World's Best Dice Games" (Hansen, 1981,
pages 73-82), Peter Arnold's "The Book of Games" (Exeter, 1985,
pages 79-80), Merilyn Simonds Mohr's "The Games Treasury" (Chapters,
1993, pages 103-104 as "Farkle"), and an article, "Spots Before the
Ice", in Games & Puzzles 54 (November 1976, pp.14-15).

Five Thousand or Ten Thousand is an extremely popular game in
commercial adaptations; the most popular of these is Cosmic Wimpout
(1984, Cosmic Wimpout), unusual in that it uses only five dice
instead of six. A search on "Cosmic Wimpout" will turn up a couple
of web pages, and there is a Usenet newsgroup
alt.games.cosmic-wimpout.
Sid Sackson's 1969 edition of "A Gamut of Games"
lists a commercial version of Five Thousand by Parker Brothers being
in print at that time. Before and since Cosmic Wimpout (1984),
there have been quite a few other commercial versions : $Greed
(1980, currently published by Avalon Hill), Zilch (1980, Twinson),
Bupkis (1981, Milco), Fill or Bust (1981, Bowman, currently
available in Germany as Volle Lotte), High Rollers (1992,
El Rancho Escondido Ents.), Six Cubes (1994, Fun and Games), and
Gold Train (Strunk, 1995). Some of these games are gimmicked
up in various ways, such as using wild cards or giving bonuses
or penalties for reaching various totals.

Here is a very brief description of the most basic form of
the game: Players in turn roll six dice, trying to throw ones
(worth 100 points each), fives (worth 50 points each), and/or
threes of a kind (worth 100 times the number rolled, 2-2-2 = 200,
etc., except that 1-1-1 = 1000). A throw of 1-2-3-4-5-6 is a
special throw worth 1500 points. A player, after scoring points,
may either stop and add all of the points from that turn to her
permanent score, or throw again using any unused dice, trying to
score additional points. A throw with no scoring combinations
ends the player's turn with nothing added to his permanent score.
If a player scores points with all of the remaining dice, he may
stop, or continue again throwing all six dice again. The first
player to reach 5000 points (or 10,000 in some versions) wins.
Look in any of the sources listed above for more details and
variations (most libraries should carry one or more of these books).

Yep, I know that game -- my wife and I play it all the time. It's
called 10,000 (how original), Farkle or Keepers. Actually, 10,000 and
Farkle are a little different from Keepers -- the former two use six
dice, while the latter, an Australian tavern variant, uses five.

Rules for Farkle/10,000 are available in "The Games Treasury" by
Merilyn Simonds Mohr (Chapters, $19.95), while a Keepers set can be
ordered from Avid Press in New Paltz, N.Y. (I can't find the address,
but the ZIP code is 12561) for about $8; the Avid version can also be
found in Museum Company mall stores. Alternately, I can try to explain
the game myself via E-mail.

BTW, if you like 10,000, you'll probably also like Milton-Bradley's
Pass the Pigs.

My favorite elementary school teacher taught me a game called "Blewit!" that
I think is similar to your 10,000. It is very much like "Cosmic Wimpout" but
with a couple differences. There are six dice rather than five and you have
much more freedom to keep your points during your turn. The exception to this
is at the very beeginning of the game. Here are the rules as I learned them:

The game can accommodate as many players as desired. Determine who gets the
dice first by rolling a single die. The first player then shootss all six
dice. All dice that count for score are removed and the player shoots the
remaining dice again until 500 points are accumulated. After reaching 500,
the player is said to be "in the game." Once a player is in the game, he/she
may keep the points accumulated on that turn at any time and pass the dice.
If on any roll during the turn no additional dice can be counted for
points, the player loses all points from that turn only and the dice are
passed. Play passes to the left. The first player to reach 10,000 wins. I
don't recall if "last licks" a la "C.W." came into play at the end.

Scoring: Every 5 rolled counts 50 points. Every 1 counts 100. If a triple
(three of a kind) is hit on a single roll, it scores 200 points for 2's, 300
for 3's, 400 for 4's, 500 for 5's and 1000 for 1's. A triple can be made any
time during a players turn so long as three or more dice are still in play,
not necessarily on the first roll. Obviously, triples come in very handy when
trying to reach the first 500 to get into the game. Remember if three 1's
or 5's appear on different rolls during the course of a turn, they are not
counted as a triple but as 100 or 50 points each. When fewer than three dice
are left, only 1's and 5's are good, but there is an incentive to keep
rolling. If a player can make all six dice count, all accumulated points are
immediately added to his/her score and the turn continues with a fresh roll
of all six dice risk-free. In addition, there are three "big scores" that can
be made only on an initial roll as all six dice are needed. Three-pair is
worth 1500 points. A straight counts 3000 points. Six of a kind on one roll
scores 10,000 resulting in an instant win! I never got one.

Hope you could follow that all right. Feel free to drop me a note if anything
was unclear.

The game 10,000 is a fairly popular one. I have come across some
variants of this simple game like Cosmic Wimpout. Unfortunately I
do not have a game on hand so I will try to be as clear as
possible:

Any number can play. The first player throws the dice and his
score is added as he goes along. A player can stop at any time
except after a three of a kind and mark his total or keep on
playing as long as he throws a combination. If he fails to do so,
he forfeits all the points for this round. A player must reach
10,000 exactly. Some variants include that a player must have a
minimum of 400 points accumulated on the last round.